Prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression amongst 1st year medical students in a medical college

Abstract

There is a high psychological morbidity that is reported in undergraduate medical students. This can range from stress, anxiety, interpersonal problems, suicide to psychiatric disorders. The objective of our study was to assess the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress amongst the first year undergraduate students in a medical college. A cross sectional study was undertaken after approval from institutional ethical committee which included the 150 undergraduate medical students of 1 year. A semi structured performa which included socio demographic profile was used along with Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS 42) for assessment. Most of the participated students were females (57.5%). All of the students (100%) were residing in hostel and were unmarried. Stress was reported by majority (86.7%) of the students with few reporting low social support (7.3%). Single responses to causes of stress were in majority (74.6%). Prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress was 56%, 68.7% and 61.3% respectively. A considerable number of undergraduate medical students are affected and suffer from anxiety, stress and depression. There is an urgent need to address the issue and give more attention towards mental health of students.